STRIKE ACTIONS IN GHANA: MY CANDID OPINION

Today in Ghana, most government workers, I must say, are too money conscious. True, hardwork needs to be rewarded but in the case where workers expect huge rewards for every work they do, there will be clashes. Strikes are indeed one way by which workers, mostly in the government sectors, put their grievances across to be addressed. The strike actions are mostly to seek redress of their salaries. For some reasons, I really wonder why it always has to do with money. Could it be that these workers are generally corrupt or that they are just discontent with the salaries they receive?

Recently, the National Security Advisor, Brigadier-General Joseph Nunoo-Mensah, reacted towards the nearly insane strike actions. I cannot agree less with his suggestion that, whoever is not satisfied with the salaries should pack their bags and go to a country where their needs will be met. Why should workers constantly embark on strike actions when some salaries have been increased to a double or more of what they used to receive? Even the Single Spine Salary Structure addresses the issue of salaries to some extent that it makes these actions among workers rather irritating. I agree that, when salaries are not quantitative enough they need to be redressed. However, at the point where workers use that as a platform to drain money from the nation's coffers is an area of concern.

For Christ's sake, Ghana is a developing nation and she needs a lot of money and dedicated workers to push her forward. In the case where workers seem to be so much interested in money and are unwilling to work, even under harsh conditions, will not set us at the pace that we have targeted to be. Workers in various sectors should have in mind that there are indeed so many ways of killing a cat. If the government is failing to pay enough monies to us as salaries, we must not use that as grounds to temporarily stop work. That attitude shows unprofessionalism and less dedication tone's field of work.

The way forward is that, workers can set up small or large scale businesses that could support them financially without having to solely depend on government for monies most term as “peanuts”. Aside that, we should have the zeal to leave a legacy in our field of work by being dedicated, hardworking, service-oriented, and reliable. The issue that has to do with money all the time only generates bad working practices such as, bribery and corruption, pilfering, poor attitude towards work and low productivity in our work places.

Strikes are necessary but not when they become persistent and hinder national development. Government already owes huge debts. Where then do we expect the huge sum of monies we demand to come from? This scenario can be likened to that between a poor parent and the child. The child, when he over burdens his parent with a lot of demands, will either push the parent into debts, or draw him eventually to his early grave. What the child can do is to support the parent through menial jobs (if the child is matured enough), or reduce his level of demands so as not to over burden the parent.

In conclusion, I am trying to say that money should not be the prime objective for our actions. Whatever we do, we must think of humanity first and ways by which we can provide our services whole-heartedly and genuinely for the betterment of those around us. Ghana would be a better nation when it devoid of all the numerous strikes and unnecessary demands from her own workers and professionals.

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